Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/367

twenty-four he engaged in several philosophical and theological disputations with some of the enemies of the Church, and ably refuted their false doctrines.

In 851 Cyrill and his brother Methodius, who had been procurator over some of the Slav parts of the Greek Empire, retired to the monastery of Mt. Olympus (Bithynia). From their retirement here, the brothers were sent in 858 to evangelize the Chozars. Having organized the Church there, they moved on to the Crimea where they found the relics of Pope St. Clement. They brought these relics with them to Constantinople.

About 860 Rostislav, Duke of Moravia (now Czechoslovakia), requested the Emperor Michael at Constantinople to send him missionaries versed in the Slav languages. Perhaps, he had heard of the activities of the two brothers and had them in mind. At all events, the emperor sent these two to him.

They came to Moravia in the year 863 and brought with them the relics of St. Clement and a translation into the Slavonic of the Sunday gospels. They were received formally by the Duke himself, and the people accorded them a joyous welcome. Cyrill introduced the Slavonic language into sermon and liturgy. By his translation of the Scriptures and liturgy and by his invention of the Glogolitic alphabet he became the founder of Slav literature.

Cyrill and Methodius continued their labors in Moravia for three and a half years, gaining at first the respect of the pagan tribes—Cyrill by his erudition and Methodius by his able statesmanship and tactful diplomacy,—and finally winning them over to the Church. At the end of that period they undertook a journey to Rome to have their work authorized. Pope Hadrian II. received the two missionaries kindly and on January 6, 869 consecrated them bishops. Immediately after his consecration, however, Cyrill fell sick. Knowing that his life was almost at an end, he discontinued his activities and entered the Benedictine monastery attached to the church of St. Clement in Rome. Here he donned the religious habit and took the name Cyrill. He died a little more than a month later, February 14, 869, in the forty-second year of his age. He was buried in the church of St. Clement.

After the death of his brother, Methodius returned. On account of the war between the German and Moravian princes, he left Moravia and went to the Pannonian prince Kozel, to evangelize his people. But the Bishop of Salzburg remonstrated, ignoring the apostolic mission of Methodius. A German synod at Ratisbon deposed the missionary and held him a prisoner for two years, subjecting him to maltreatment and indignities which amounted to martyrdom.

It was only with great difficulty that Methodius at length succeeded in outwitting the German bishops and apprising the new pope, John VII. of the facts of the situation. Pope John im-